Egyptian Women March, Decry Abuse by Military

By

Matt Bradley

December 21, 2011

CAIRO—Thousands of Egyptian women descended on downtown Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Tuesday to protest what many have described as systematic abuse of female activists by the interim ruling military regime.

ENLARGE

Egyptian women shout slogans during a protest in downtown Cairo to denounce the violent treatment of women by the military.
AFP/Getty Images

The women joined thousands of male protesters, whose violent demonstration against military rule continued for a fifth day. The death toll rose to 13, the state news agency reported.

The women's march, though only part of the rising anger against the military, marked a qualitative shift in the way the broader public perceives Egypt's military leadership.

The march's catalyst was a single image, pulled on Saturday from a video, of an unidentified, half-naked and possibly unconscious woman being dragged through Tahrir Square by military police officers.

The officers had either stripped the woman of her abaya, a cloak worn by many conservative Muslim women, or had allowed it to slip off as they dragged her over the pavement.

Regional Upheaval

At least one officer could clearly be seen stomping on the woman's bare stomach.

Thanks to front-page exposure in local newspapers and discussions on news shows and social-networking websites, the "woman with the blue bra" has seared herself into the Egyptian public consciousness.

The image has shattered the military's self-stylization as the defender of Egypt's defenseless. It has portrayed the army in the same light as the seemingly ubiquitous thugs, or "baltagiya," whose presence the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, or SCAF, has used to justify its draconian law-enforcement methods.

"It's mainly against the stereotypical image of the SCAF protecting people and protecting women," said
Mozn Hassan,
the director of Nazra for Feminist Studies, a women's rights advocacy group. Ms. Hassan said the SCAF "are always saying that they are protecting citizens and doing this for women."

Indeed, the protection of women has repeatedly figured into the SCAF's public justifications for their continued use of a 30-year old emergency law, that gives civilian police broad powers to detain without charge, and their use of military trials against civilians.

That argument tapped into increasing public anxiety over the perceived lawlessness of Egyptian streets following a revolution early this year, when law-enforcement officers across the country mysteriously left their posts in the face of attacks by protesters.

In a news conference on Monday, Gen. Adel Emara, a member of the SCAF, said the military was investigating the incident.

"As an Egyptian citizen and a father, I feel sorry for such a scene," Gen. Emara said. "I am asking you to look at the surrounding circumstances first before you say that the army is using violence."

Hours after the protests kicked off on Tuesday, the SCAF posted an apology for the incident behind Saturday's photo and promised an investigation.

But the "woman in the blue bra" isn't the first crack in the military's female-defending façade.

Military police officers administered "virginity tests" to nearly 20 female protesters who had been arrested during a demonstration in Tahrir Square in March—an exercise many activists said amounted to little more than sexual intimidation.

SCAF generals repeatedly denied the virginity-test story until one general admitted the incident to CNN in May, describing it as a precaution meant to shield arresting officers from rape allegations.

Even that story wasn't enough to turn public opinion against a military leadership once celebrated as the unassailable heroes of Egypt's revolution, Ms. Hassan said.

"For the virginity tests, people said 'OK, this happened for some women,' " said Ms. Hassan. "But it's become harsher and harsher, so it's now so obvious."

While Ms. Hassan said that Tuesday's march is a victory for opponents of military rule, she hesitated to describe it as a significant triumph for women's rights. When only a few hundred women staged a protest in Tahrir Square calling for greater women's rights on International Women's Day in March, they were met by hundreds of abusive men loudly demanding they return home.

"Of course, if people are in the streets chanting and asking for a new personal status law, no one will hear them," she said.

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